The Best from the Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedoms Center in 2013

The Roosevelt Institute's Daily Digest is taking a break for the holidays. We'll be back on January 2, but in the meantime, we're rounding up highlights from our blog in 2013. Today, we have highlights from the Fellows in the Four Freedoms Center.

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal breaks the story that researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst found major flaws in the data Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff used to support the claim that high debt-to-GDP ratios were tied to weak economic growth.

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Andrea Flynn explains why increasing Title X family planning funds will be essential to maximize the reach and impact of the Affordable Care Act, especially when only some states are expanding Medicaid.

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative Jeff Madrick explains why jobs should be the number one issue on the government's agenda, and what questions policymakers must consider to solve this problem.

Video: Jeff summarizes three steps that should be taken to address the jobs emergency.

Roosevelt Institute Fellow Annette Bernhardt calls for the economic freedom that comes from a higher wage floor, along with stronger enforcement of the minimum wage, including for categories of workers are currently exempt, such as home care workers.

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Richard Kirsch considers the narrative presented by the President in his December 4 speech on economic inequality, in which access to the American Dream is limited by rising inequality.

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow and Hyde Park Resident Historian David Woolner suggests that today's Congress would do well to learn from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's model during the Great Depression and create jobs directly in order to combat long-term unemployment.

Nell Abernathy, Program Manager for the Roosevelt Institute's Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative, considers the data on opportunity youth, who are between age 16 and 24 and neither working nor in school, and asks what policies could best serve them.

John Randall, writing for the Roosevelt Institute's Telecommunications Equality Project, says that Comcast's Internet Essentials program helps the company's customer acquisition and public relations departments far more than it helps low-income households.